The Illusion of "Sign Gifts"

An article I read recently concerning a conference in Southern California attacking Pentecostals and charismatics made a point I thought interesting. People who teach that certain gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased operating after the First Century AD - "Cessationism" - make a point of using phrases such as "revelatory gifts", or "sign gifts", as if those terms came from Scripture. While there maybe some descriptive utility in this usage, it can also be misleading if one assumes Scripture makes such a distinction. It does not. Making this distinction is foundational to Cessationism. It separates the gifts of the Spirit into two classes of gifts, setting up the possibility that one class ceased, while the other continued. In other words, part of the conclusion has been built - consciously or subconsciously - into one of the premises.

By way of contrast, Scripture speaks of the gifts of the Spirit, undifferentiated, all supernatural, all empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is seen in both Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 & 28-30. Both mix the the obviously miraculous gifts and those less obviously so as having the same character, differentiated only by the sort of need each meets. Aside from refusing to accept gifts God has given to the Body of Christ for its benefit, the danger in distinguishing the more obviously miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit from those that seem more ordinary is to fail to recongize that the working and empowering of the Holy Spirit is just as intrinsic and critical to gifts such as teaching, serving, hospitality and giving as to speaking in tongues or healing. One may teach or serve or give with one's natural talents and means, but not so the obviously miraculous gifts. The path from distinguishing the obviously miraculous gifts from those less obviously so, through failing to recognize the less obviously miraculous as, nevertheless, the work of the Holy Spirit, to operating on natural talent rather than relying on the Holy Spirit is perilously short.